Display device.



P. R. HAY.

DISPLAY DE V|CE. APPLICATION man :uw s. |916.

1,283,751 l Patented Nov. 5, 1918.

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PAUL R. HAY, 0F PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANI.

DISPLAY DEVICE.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 6, 1916. Serial No. 107,785.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL R. HAY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Pittsburgh, North Side, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Display Devices; -and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention pertains to display devices, and relates especially to electrically-lighted signs of the character in which the light varies and changes'for the purpose o' attracting attention thereto. In"electrically-light-l ed signs of thisl general character, .it is common to provide means for intermittently switching the light on and off, to produce a rotating cage having glasses of different colors is employed, thedii'erent colors come up at regular intervals; if a plurality of different colored lamps are switched on in succession, the dii'erent colors show at uniform/ periods. lIn all these devices there is a monotonous regularity, which does not tendtoward the device forcing itself upon the public attention, as is desired.

It is the object of thisinvention to provide an electrically-lighted device which will present -constantly varying colors which come up in no -xed order of succession, and in which colors of all kinds-including the solid colors, striped effects, and variegated effectsare resented.

I attain this object by providing, within a suitable translucent covering, such as a frosted globe,V a plurality of skeedoodle plugs. A skeedoodle plug is a device formed at one end with a plug for enterin a lamp socket, and formed at the other en with a socket for receiving a lamp base, which device contains a resistance coil and contact means, so arranged and constructed Patented Nov. 5, 1918.

that when the lamp is glowing, the resistance coil becomes heated and thereby increases in conductivity, which results in the circuit being broken, whereupon the lamp goes out. When the lamp is out, the .coil cools and, in due time, 'establishes thercontact, whereupon the lamp begins to glow again. Thus the use of the skeedoodle plug results in the lamp alternately glowing and going out. These skeedoodle plugs are well known in the art under that name, and are largely used, in their individual relation, in electrical display devices. In obtaining the results sought after, I provide a plurality of these skeedoodleplugs, arranged in cluster form,- with a lamp of diderent color in each. The cluster of lamps is surrounded by a translucent covering, such as a frosted globe or the like. A skeedoodle plug does not effeet the switching on and off of the light at accurately divided intervals; and, in any case, theskeedoodle plugs on the market are provided with adjusting means which permits their periods to be varied. Thus'the lights within the globe will be irregular as to which of them will be going at one time.

Considering the lights as being red,` blue andy yellow, which are the'three primary colors, the red lamp may be glowing alone, it may be glowing in conjunction with the blue lamp, it may be glowing in conjunction with the yellow lamp, or it may be'glowing in conjunction with both the blue and the yellow lamps; and, during the glowing of the redlamp, either the blue lamp or the yellow lamp may go on or off. It is obvious that, when the clusterl is surrounded by a translucent globe or the like, the result is a continuously varying exhibition of shades of color, which donot recurpat any xed intervals. Sometimes solid colors will be produced; sometimes the colors will appear 1n stripes; and sometimes variegated lcolors will be presented. The display device thus produced is far more attention-demanding than is the case with the regularly recurring devices at present on the market.

By way of an example of one construction in which my invention may be embodied, I have shown in the accompanying drawing, and described below, one form of display device constructed in vaccordance therewith. I wish it understood, however,

that the invention may be embodied in other forms, and that changes may be embodied disclose the skeedoodle plugs and lamps.

Figs. 2 and 3 are sectional views of onev of the skeedoodle plugs, taken at right angles to each other, to clearly illustrate the interior mechanism of such plugs.

Referring now to the drawing, indi-- Cates a suitable hood or` the like, to which conductors are brought, through a conduitI 11. Suitably supported within the hood 1G,

' are three lamp sockets 12, disposed in the usual parallel relation and arranged in cluster form. ln the lamp sockets are inserted skeedoodle plugs 13, 14 and 15, each of which is provided with a lever 16 for adjusting the length of the period at whichv the lamp carried by the particular skeedoodle plug shall remain glowing. The slreedoodle plugs 13, 14 and 15 carry lamps 1T, 18 and 19, of which the lamp 17 may be red, the lamp 18 may be yellow, and the lamp 19 may be'blue.

These being the three primary colors, they will, by being combined together in dierent ways, produce all the other colors.

The hood 10 is provided with the shade holder 20, in which is supported, in the usual manner, a translucent globe 21. The globe 21 has its surface decorated with any desired advertising legend, such as 22. 1

The slreedoodle plugs 13, 14v and 15 comprise a casing 23 in which is secured a disk of insulating material 24, for supporting thereon a thermostatic member comprising coils 25. An adjustable contact member 16 is mounted on one of the coils 25 and adapted to be adjusted to or from a permanent contact 26 on the other coil. The upper end of the casing 23 is closed by an insulating member 27 supporting a contact 28, having a lead wire 28 extending therefrom and secured to one of said coils 25. ilhe lower end of the casing 23 is screw-threaded to form a socket orticn and is surround ed on the outside Ay an insulating casing 29. A contact member 30 is supported on the underside of the disk 24 and is in circuit with one of the coils 25.

The operation of the above device will be readily understood without describing it incensi in detail., since it is a well known form and operation of thermostatic construction, the circuit being made and broken through the contacts 16 and 26 due to the eil'ect of the 60 current on the coils 25.

When current is lirst switched on to the device, the three colors may start to glow fairly closely together, unless one or more of the adjusting devices 16 have been 65 operated to prevent this; but, after the device has been in operation for a little time, the irregularity of the periods of change of the three skeedoodle plugs, will cause the colors to come up at diiferent times and in 7o constantly varying combinations, as has been described above. y

The device described has the advantage of the continuously changing, and beautifully colored, lighting effects it presents, which lighting effects are of a nature peculiarly adapted to command the attention, and thus display the advertising legend in great prominence. It has the further advantage that, bythe use of only three lamps (and these not in operation all the time), it will produce an innumerable number of successive colors. Of course, a cluster comprising a diliferent 'number oi skeedoodle plugs and lamps may be employed without exceedin the scope of my invention, as defined 1n the claim. The lamps must however, be disposed in cluster form, since otherwise they would be liable merely to present their individual colors to the eye.

Havin thus fully described my invention, what I c aim as new and desire to securevby Letters Patent is ln a display device, a cluster of three electric bulbs, sockets for said bulbs, each ont' 95 said bulbs being of a diiierent primary color, said cluster being so arranged that one of said. bulbs partly overlaps the other two, an individual current-controlled device carried by each of said sockets and associated PAUL n. w

lditnesses A. l). P. Milmnn, Cuantas Corn. 

